Crafting Stories: Texts & Textiles
FYSEMR 68D
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
How do you weave a story? Remember someone through a quilt? Encode knowledge in knots? Write code on a loom?
Weaving and writing may seem like separate practices—one made of thread, the other of words—yet both are ways of creating and sharing meaning. This seminar invites you to explore how texts and textiles communicate beyond traditional language through texture, pattern, rhythm, and sensation. We begin in Greek antiquity, where Penelope weaves and unweaves a shroud to control her fate and Philomela uses tapestry to tell the truth when she cannot speak. From there, we follow threads across cultures and centuries, from knotted record-keeping systems in the Andes to experimental textile art in Germany, and from woven poems to contemporary activist quilts in the United States. Working across media, we study—and practice—how stories are made, remade, and woven into the fabric of people’s lives.
NOTE: The seminar involves visits to the Harvard Art Museums and introductory workshops on weaving where students build their own wooden hand loom and develop a weaving project. No prior experience in textile work is required.
Class Notes
First-Year Seminars are available only to first-year students. You may apply to both Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 First-Year Seminars via the FYS lottery between July 6 and August 6, 2026 at 11:59PM-midnight.
You may apply to as many seminars each term as you would like, but we recommend you apply to at least six in fall and three in spring.
As part of your application, you must provide a brief statement on why you are interested in each seminar. You will be notified of lottery results for both fall and spring seminars at 5 pm on August 11. If you are unsuccessful in the lottery, you may still join any seminar with open seats. A list of open seminars and instructions on next steps will be available on the First-Year Seminar Program website August 11 at 12 Noon.
Not Available for Cross Registration
